A review by warlocksarecool21
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A Master of Djinn was another fun installment in the Dead Djinn universe! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I hope we get more books in the series. In this book we follow Fatma and her fellow Ministry agents as they try to stop a man claiming he is the powerful al-Jahiz, who opened a portal to the djinn realm and brought them and their magic to Earth, while also exploring important commentary about sociopolitical issues of the early 20th century that are still relevant today. 

What I enjoyed most about this book was the world-building. P. Djèlí Clark is very good at pulling on familiar legends and mythology and putting a new twist on it. I really liked exploring this world from Fatma’s perspective and learning more about the Ministry’s role in this version of Egypt. 
  
I think the author writes good characters as well. Fatma is an interesting and engaging protagonist. I like the way her character was developed throughout the story. She’s smart and independent but has to learn how to rely on others and let people in. I also enjoyed Fatma’s interactions with the other characters. I really liked how she had to learn to accept Hadia as her partner and trust her to be competent and reliable and I thought Hadia was very sweet, they balanced each other well. 

I appreciated that Fatma was queer, and I did like her relationship with Siti but I wish we got more of a focus on it. I knew this had been labelled as a queer fantasy (and it is, the MC is queer) so I guess I was just hoping that an exploration of queer culture and the sociopolitical implications of being queer during this time period but it didn’t come up a lot beyond the few moments we get dedicated to Fatma and Siti’s relationship (which was cute but I also wanted more of it). Even though it wasn’t the main focus of the story, I felt P. Djèlí Clark was very deliberate in his choices to explore other themes such as race, colorism and class so I was hoping we would also get that same approach applied to Fatma’s queerness and the implications of that in this world, but it was not to be this time (hopefully in another installment!). It wasn’t enough to detract from my overall enjoyment but I did want to share my thoughts about it. 

Overall, I think Clark did a good job at weaving commentary about various sociopolitical issues throughout the story (in a way that was relevant to the characters and plot). There were a lot of themes he was trying to incorporate, and while I don’t think all of them were given the time needed to develop a nuanced conversation I appreciate the attention that was brought to them. I think the issues best explored were how racial dynamics in Cairo impacted people depending on 
other intersections of their identity, colonialism and how Europe continues to fuck things up in Africa, and discussions of misogyny (internalized and external) and gender biases. 
I felt the commentary Clark was trying to make about police and police brutality could have been engaged with more. There definitely was an attempt and we did hear criticisms from various side characters but I wish there was more critical engagement of those themes Fatma, considering her role in the government and how closely she works with the police. A lot of the commentary about the aforementioned topics that was included definitely landed but it almost seemed like there wasn’t enough time to develop everything while maintaining the actual plot. I do recognize this was the author’s first full-length novel so I do have high hopes for future books. 

 Anyways, I had fun with the plot and the characters and I definitely recommend checking out this series if you’re into Egyptian and Arabic mythology and a historical Egypt setting. 
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